Meet Sharon Hargrave

Sharon Hargrave, a licensed marriage and family therapist specializing in couples,
families, and intergenerational issues, is the executive director of the Boone Center
for the Family, an organization established by the university in 1996 as a supportive
force to help strengthen and promote healthy families.

"Pepperdine prides itself on its Christian heritage and its commitment to fostering
healthy moral relationships leading to strong marriages and families," says president
Andy Benton. "As such, we are blessed to have acquired the skills and talents of such
an accomplished marriage and family expert as Sharon. We are confident that she will
both strengthen and enhance the Boone Center's mission."

Hargrave currently serves at Fuller Theological Seminary, where she is the founder
and director of MarriageStrong—a ministry designed to help seminary students prepare
their marriages for ministry. She also teaches as an adjunct instructor in the Marriage
and Family Therapy department. As executive director of the Boone Center for the Family,
Hargrave will continue her role with MarriageStrong. Through her work there, she has
been successful in receiving funding from foundations, grants, and private donors.

A California native who grew up in Texas, Hargrave holds a bachelor's degree from
Biola University and a master of arts degree in Marriage and Family Counseling from
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

Hargrave and her husband Terry, a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, travel
and speak nationally and internationally about marriage, forgiveness, and aging and
caregiving to both professional audiences and various church and religious organizations.

The Boone Center for the Family at Pepperdine was established through the inspiration
and foundation of M. Norvel and Helen Young and endowed by Pat and Shirley Boone in
2006. The Center has become an active, vital extension of Pepperdine's Christian mission.
Created to provide a supportive force to help strengthen families, it provides practical
seminars for marriage enrichment and parenting, as well as trainings for churches,
professionals, and lay leaders who reach wider audiences in their communities. The
Center is headquartered in the M. Norvel and Helen Young Center on Pepperdine's Drescher
Graduate Campus in Malibu.